• Tuesday-What'sUP July 29 - 09:53 pm

Kitch-iti-kipi, The Big Spring, is located just west of Manistique, in Palm Books State Park. It's about 12 miles off of US2, but the detour there is worth your time. The name means big cold water and this is Michigan's largest natural freshwater spring. This 40 foot deep pool of emerald colored water is crystal clear and has a constant temperature of 45° year round. It is estimated that 10,000 gallons of water per minute flows through this spring.

When you get to the Spring, you'll find a large raft with a roof overhead and a cut-out in the middle of it, so that you can view the fish in the clear water below. The raft is operated by human power, with a wheel that you turn to take you across the spring along a cable and back to the dock again. While passing over the pool of water, you can also see the sand on the bottom, churning and bubbling in the places where the water is flowing in.

The two signs pictured here are both quite informative and are actually located on the raft, so you can learn more about the Big Spring as you're traveling across and back. Makes for a nice self-guided tour and the only cost is the park sticker to get into the State Park. If you haven't been there yet, it's definitely something you should add to your bucket list.

Looks like a fun place to visit. Thanks for sharing
this!

I want to visit.

Looks so relaxing and enjoyable. Something soothing about being around water.

Thank you, Mary, nice tour. Those fish look like miniature sharks.

I've been there many a time...highly recommend it. The setting is very quiet and peaceful, and the view in the clear, spring water is magnificent. The raft sure has changed over the years, I remember when there was no canopy and no wheel. Someone had to manually pull the raft across to get to the other side and back again...the original quick weight loss clinic :-)

...and while your there, you are not that far from Fayette Historic State Park, check it out.

AND...the "Bestest Grandparents Award" goes
to.....Mary and Jim Drew! You two ROCK!!!

Nice Pic's, as I said before, I'd still like to dive in that pond!

It's like diving into the Big Lake off the North Entry Lighthouse. Cold, deep, and very refreshing. (As told to me by a Yooper who belly flopped into the Big Spring last summer.)

If you happen to find yourself anywhere near this place and you don't stop and see it you are missing out on something really neat.

OH MY GOSH!!!!! how cool is that.:O) love it. So great to see kids out and about, too.

Gorgeous shots mary..love the emerald color of the
water..and them dandy trout in there too..
Beautiful!!!!

we did a lot of camping when our boys were little. On one of our excursions across the U.P.-we visited this great spring. Maybe it is time for me to go back there! great pics!

Good photos.